


We Will Definitely Find Ghosts Screw You Keith

by PotentialOverlord



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Cuban Lance (Voltron), Gay Keith (Voltron), Ghost Town AU, I Tried, I'll add more tags as i go, Japanese Shiro (Voltron), Keith With A Mustache, Keith and Shiro are Siblings, Korean Keith (Voltron), M/M, Modern AU, Slow Burn, angst baby keith, city slicker lance, desert dweller keith, for like 2 seconds, well half siblings, will definitely earn mature rating later on
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-02
Updated: 2017-06-18
Packaged: 2018-11-08 05:19:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,264
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11074860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PotentialOverlord/pseuds/PotentialOverlord
Summary: "Hmu if you are cool and know your way around ghost towns-Lance ;) 'Keith couldn't believe his eyes, some douchey sounding white boy wanted a guide for the one thing Keith was confident in:knowing his way around the shitty fucking desert and finding the abandoned towns littered throughout it."Basically an au where Keith is desperate for a job so he agrees to guide Lance through the desert to search for ghost towns. Shenanigans ensue and spoiler alert: they fall hopelessly in love





	1. Chapter 1

Keith was boiling with rage as he slammed the office door shut, final paycheck in hand as well as a promise to never work in another ghost town in the southwest ever again. It wasn't his fault the fucking dick lord "patron" had felt inclined to touch his butt right before the big shoot out scene, effectively ruining everyone's choreography and earning the town several threats to sue. Definitely wasn't his fault all the times before either. Each time he had fought either park guests or fellow employees it had all been for good reasons. There was the time a guest had ripped off his mustache because they felt he should grow one out for real and not bullshit people (which he had done eventually because putting it on every morning had become a real hassle but still fuck that prick), another was his coworker Lotor had insisted that it wasn't "authentic to have a Chinese dude play a cowboy" which was complete bullshit because a) Keith was Korean, at least his grandparents were and b) if they literally walked 5 seconds up to the grave yard, half of the graves belonged to either Chinese or Japanese people, and all the rest had basically been just any assholes who ruffled his  feathers in the worst ways imaginable.  So thinking about it the fucking park should be thanking their stars _Keith_ hadn't decided to sue for harassment. But no, here Keith stood at the edge on the dirt parking lot, his thumb hovering above the green call button, definitely not wanting to have this talk with Shiro but definitely needing a ride.

 Three too loud rings later and Shiro's gruff voice picked up with his standard " hey Keith sorry but can you wait 5 seconds till I finish up this car?" 

"Yeah sure I can wait." 

"Alright awesome I'll finish real fast, I know how short your breaks are" Keith groaned inwardly at that. How the fuck was he supposed to tell Shiro he had finally lost the only job he had held onto longer than 6 months. Grinding his fist into his eye he forced himself to come up with good starting points. "Hey, you know how you said you wanted me to spend more time with you? Well now I can!" Or "So funny story about work, some random Joe mistook my butt for a place to put their hand and we all had a good laugh except now I'm out of job and the guy has a broken nose" How about: " you know how Allura said that-" 

 "Alright I'm back" Shiro broke his train of thought, " the cars fixed, the customer came in thinking his radiator exploded so after checking no his radiator had not exploded I had to go around checking every single part I finally realized it was that he hadn't refilled his coolant and his car had simply over heated."

"Shiro,"

"Ah yeah sorry I got carried away! I'm supposed to be listening to you right now what with break time probably being almost over for you, so what's up? Fight for your honor again today? I bet Jeff wouldn't be too happy about that but he knows you're a good guy and don't actively seek out fights."

"Actually Shiro-" 

"Oh before I forget Allura and I are planning on coming out next weekend to see you in action!"

"Haha funny story," oh god was he really using that line ? "I may or may not have been fired for 'attacking a patron' today."

"Oh," Shiro's tone dropped to his sad disappointed dad voice, "I can probably make it down there in 3 hours is that ok?" God Keith hated his disappointed voice; angry yelling he could take but the quiet acceptance that Keith had yet again fucked up hurt more than anything he could bear. 

"Yeah that's fine I'll just chill in the parking lot until you make it," Keith quietly replied, digging the toe of his shoe in the dirt and pretending it was Jeff his ex-manager being stomped to death. 

"Alright see you in a bit then, bye," Shiro sighed. Keith didn't bother to reply and just hung up not wanting the other man to hear the choked breaths of air that were the telltale signs of a person crying. God he hated when Shiro was disappointed in him. He wiped the big fat tears rolling down his cheeks and willed himself to stop bawling like some brat. Sure this had been a really fun job that paid pretty decent but he needed to get over it. Move on. Find a job that was way better so he wouldn't have to mooch off his brother longer than necessary.  So he wouldn't have to wake up every morning again and think about how he was detracting from society with how absolutely useless he was. 

After a good thirty minutes his tears tapered off and he was left tired as shit.  He had nothing to do for roughly 2 hours and so he decided to be productive and went searching for a job. 

He typed into the search engine of his phone "jobs in Phoenix" and up popped over 100,000 results. One job in there had to want him right?

   After an hour of searching he had come to the conclusion that no, none of them were at all suited to him. 90% were fast food places wanting you to suck up to their greasy entitled customer's asses which he would be the first to admit would go over great for about 3 seconds until Keith decked them.  No, fast food was not the occupation for Keith. The other ten percent was all weirdly specific about what qualifications you needed. Most of the qualifications were happy! out going! good with people!  Which again, just wasn't for Keith. So Keith started screwing around with what he typed in:

"I punched too many customers hire me please" " I suck with people please hire me" " if you had to choose between a rock and me, I would be a great hire please hire me"

" I worked at a ghost town for 8 months and have no real skills please hire me"

On the last search a personal add on Craigslist had popped up. Keith was curious and bored enough to click on it and hoped this person wasn't too sketchy and had lots of money he would be willing to give to Keith. 

  The posting read as following: 

"Hey my name is Lance and I'm visiting my parents in Arizona. It's my first time here so I wanted to do something fun. My genius of a friend then told me you guys had ghost towns and I've honestly always wanted to see a real live ghost so I was all sign me up. Anyways what I really need is like a guide who knows all the best ghost towns and how not to get lost in the desert because that's honestly one of my biggest fears. I can pay for gas and we can discuss your salary. Hmu if you are cool and know your way around ghost towns 

-Lance ;) "

  Keith couldn't believe his eyes, some douchey sounding white boy wanted a guide for the one thing Keith was confident in: knowing his way around the shitty fucking desert and finding the abandoned towns littered throughout it. He had grown up finding them with his dad so how hard could it be showing some snot nosed rich kid them? He started typing up his response:

 “Hello Lance, my name is Keith…

₍₍ (ง Ŏ౪Ŏ)ว ⁾⁾₍₍ (ง Ŏ౪Ŏ)ว ⁾⁾₍₍ (ง Ŏ౪Ŏ)ว ⁾⁾₍₍ (ง Ŏ౪Ŏ)ว ⁾⁾₍₍ (ง Ŏ౪Ŏ)ว ⁾⁾₍₍ (ง Ŏ౪Ŏ)ว ⁾⁾₍₍ (ง Ŏ౪Ŏ)ว ⁾⁾

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please let me know what you think, I'm desperate for internet stranger's opinions. Also ghost towns are really cool and you should totally check them out if you haven't ever been to one before! I'll give you a high five if you can guess by vague hints which ghost town Keithy boy was fired from. Idk what else to put here, so I guess please stay tuned and I'll probably post chapter 2 next week sometime?


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just want to say a quick thank you for everyone who read chapter one and decided to stick around for chapter 2, you guys are the best and made me feel really happy I decided to write this fanfic instead of just keeping it in my head.
> 
> So couple of notes for people reading this: Phoenix is the capital of Arizona and there is a bunch of cities surrounding it and that is where the gang lives so if you are curious how exactly it's laid out you can look up a map cause all the places I'm gonna mention are real.  
> Also there's going to be texting in this. [this is Lance's] and [this is Keith’s] (its in italics but the notes don't want to show that? I hope you don't get to lost :C )

                The long drive back to Shiro’s apartment in Tempe was filled with a tense quiet that Keith dared not break. Shiro hadn’t even asked him the usual why had he been fired this time around. He hadn’t even tried to cheer him up with a cheesy “Don’t worry, Keith, you’ll definitely love your next job!”  Fiddling with his belt buckle, Keith stole a peek at Shiro’s profile. His eyebrows were scrunched down as he focused on the winding road in front of them, a frown was creating a soft crease aging him at least 20 years and in that moment Keith couldn’t see anyone but their father driving him home after one of their adventures in the desert. Both of them had been laughing about the monster Keith had insisted was very real and living in the desert; his dad was clearly just too slow and old to see it. His dad had looked at him at that moment as if Keith was the only thing in his world.

                Whipping his head around, he forced himself to look out the cars tinted window and stare at the tan brush blurring by. He hadn’t actually thought about his dad in years, sure he remembered in passing things he and his dad had done together but he hadn’t remembered anything specific. He had almost forgotten the sparkle in his eyes that only appeared when he looked at him or Shiro. Shit, Keith needed to not think about this otherwise he would start crying, and he didn’t need Shiro witnessing one of his break downs. He fervently started suppressing all the emotions welling up inside him and instead turned to his phone and prayed for a distraction.

 A couple rounds of candy crush had him tuning out his emotions better than a teenager could their nagging parents. He was actually on a roll, clearing over 20 stages in only 15 minutes.  This last round was tricky though, he had used up all but his last life and he couldn’t think of a way to connect the candy in a way that would let him win without buying more moves. After a good minute of staring, he realized the game had screwed him over and it was game over. He sighed and closed out of the app.  Suddenly a message came in from an unknown number that was outside of his area code. He hesitantly opened the messanger app to see what the stranger wanted. The message inside didn’t help at all to identify the sender.

[Wow u sound perf keef]

[ _uh, who is this?]_

[woops forgot 2 mention]

[this is lance ;)]

[u gave me ur number when u sent ur response email]

[wouldnt it b sooooo romantic if i wuz a wrong number tho  and we lik fell in love????]

Keith stared at his phone trying to read the atrocious grammar that he was sure if any of his high school English teachers had seen it they would die of a brain aneurysm on the spot. After rereading it at least 5 times he realized the fuck boy was… hitting on him? He didn’t know how he was going to respond because a) Keith was bad with people as he mentioned before, b) no one had ever hit on him in real life let alone over a fucking text, and c) how the fuck did this guy even know that  Keith was gay or not? It made absolutely no sense to Keith.

[lolz I wuz just kidding keef  no homo and all ]

Great Keith was dealing with a bro fuck boy to top it all off. Shit Keith really didn’t know how to respond to this so he did the one thing he was great at: correcting people when they were wrong and being a prick.

[ _My name is Keith, not keef. Also learn to spell.]_

The reply was instantaneous.

[lol u type lik my gran gran]

                [ when r u availbe btw??]

                [ cause im stuck here 4 da summer nd im already bored af]

                Keith couldn’t help but gaze in wonder at the messages. Who in the actual living fuck actually talked like that? Was Lance ;) aware that literally everything that came out of his mouth was incoherent garbage? Was Keith really going to go through with spending multiple hours a day with this trash heap of human being? Honestly he couldn’t see himself spending more than a second with this walking pile of horse shit, but he was really going to need money while searching for his next job that wouldn’t mind hiring someone with his temper. So he gave himself an ultimatum: If this Lance ;) was going to be a cheap ass and only pay $20 along with gas, Keith was free to say fuck you and have a pleasant day. That would be fair right?

                _[I’m actually free whenever you want, but how much are you going to pay me?]_

                [wow keef at least let  me take u 2 dinner b4 we jump into da business side of things]

                _[Sorry? Also, again it’s Keith not Keef.]_

                [lolz im just kiddin keithy boi u need to learn to take a joke]

                [ but yeah I was thinkin $200 4 every ghost town we go 2?]

                [is that cool with u????]

                Holy fuck keith couldn’t believe his eyes. How rich were his parents that he could just throw $200 at people on the internet for _fun_????  Shit now he definitely couldn’t back out which meant he was gonna be kissing up to this rich prick for the rest of the summer. He gulped and typed his response.

                _[That’s actually perfect for me. When do you want to go? ]_

                [ awesome ;)]

                [i wuz thinkin the day after next?]

                [cause tmmrow is my couzinz b day party]

_[That’s fine ,as I said before I’m free whenever. Also which city are you in?]_

[y do u wanna know where i live??]

[r u a serial killer]

[?????????????]

_[If anything shouldn’t I be worried you’re the serial killer? I mean you put an ad up on fucking craigslist for god’s sake.]_

[gasp! Watch ur language Keefy boi there r children in the room!!!1!!]

[true tho]

[guess we just hav 2 trust were not goin 2 murder each other]

[make a serial killer pinky promise]

God did this guy ever shut up? All Keith wanted to know where he lived so he would know how far he had to drive to pick the chicken shit dick up.

_[Ugh. I only wanted to know because I’m assuming you wanted me to actually pick you up and not just go by myself?]_

“Keith, we’re here.”  Shiro said turning off the car motor.  Silently Keith picked up his bag and followed Shiro up to his apartment. The sun was setting so it was probably around 7 which meant Allura was probably coming over soonish for her and Shiro’s weekly gross couple movie night. Which meant he either had to third wheel it hard or hide out in Shiro’s guest bedroom until Allura left for the night. His phone buzzed when he stepped inside. He reached inside his pocket for it just as Shiro cleared his throat. Shit here comes the disappointed dad lecture.

                “I know it’s hard for you to connect with people. I was thinking the entire drive back what to say to you. I know dad would scold you and tell you how you could have done better and that only you are in control of your anger. But I’m not dad. So I’m going to say this, I know how much you liked that job. You never came right out and said you loved it, but I could hear it in your voice whenever you called. You sounded like you did in grade school, pre middle school emo phase. You tried your best right? So I know you’re hurting right now, and my lectures aren’t going to help. I just want you to know that I’m here for you and that I love you.”

                His eyes were stinging and he felt his face burning. Fuck Keith was crying now, in front of Shiro the one person he never wanted to let know he was weak as shit. He buried his hands in face hoping Shiro had by some miracle hadn’t noticed the treacherous drops sliding down his face. He felt big strong arms encircle him and he kinda just broke down, because yeah he really had fucking liked that job and he had tried his goddamn best. And Shiro just held him like that until his cheeks had dried and he finally regained his normal breathing.

********

                Blearily opening his eyes and discovering he was half way falling off the couch and hearing loud whispers floating in from the kitchen was not Keith’s ideal conditions for waking up. Shit his back felt like he had been hit by a car going 100 mph and then a couple of dogs had found his mangled corpse and decided to take a piss on him. He patted around for his phone and checked the time. 7:07 AM. He groaned as he saw how many unread messages he had because fuck he had never texted back Lance last night.

[uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugh i guess ur right THIS time k man]

[i live in  ?chandler?]

[my mom says it’s by phoenix???]

[do u kno where i live????]

[cause i don’t]

[halp]

[i pulled up a map]

[def around phoenix]

[oh shit wut if u dont live near phoenix????]

[keef? U gonna respond?]

[were u murdered?]

[or r u murdering?]

[should i call the popo?]

[keeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeith]

[as ur boss u should know i wont tolerate bein ignored]

[wow i see how it is]

[i dont wanna takl 2 u either]

[just kiddin i do]

[did i evr mention im bored as shit down here?]

[im talkin 2 u a craigslist man cause my friends r busy partyin wit out me :,(]

Double fuck. He slipped his phone back in his pocket because if Lance was still willing to hire him after blowing him off like that then Lance could wait until he ate something first.

                Plodding his way down the hall he could finally start to hear what the whispers were whispering.

                “ _I’m going to wake him up.”_ One of the whisperers said, voice filled with determination.

 _“Don’t! You don’t know what he’s like in the mornings!!”_  the other voice harshly replied.

                “ _But Shiro, the pancakes are getting cold. And I want to hug him, especially since SOMEONE wouldn’t let me over last night so I could help cheer him up!”_

_“I told you, he’s a big angst baby and he doesn’t like people seeing him like tha-“_

                “Who’s the big angst baby?” Keith cut off the speaker as he slammed the kitchen door open, “I hope your refereeing to yourself because I wasn’t the one who all throughout high school insisted that he write poems if a girl rejected him.”

                “We swore never to speak of that!” Shiro shouted, slamming his fists down on the counter. “If you want to play dirty how about the time you thought it would brilliant if –“

                Allura cut their bickering off as she burst out into hysterical laughter and pointed a finger at Keith.  Keith instantly blushed and shot a questioning look towards Shiro. Shiro returned the look and shrugged his shoulders; clearly he didn’t know what his girlfriend found so funny either.

                “S-sorry,” Allura managed to gasp out between taking large gulps of air, “It’s just I never went and visited you while you were working, pfft. Wow I’m really trying to stop laughing but I’m sorry your mustache is so horribly funny to look at first thing in the morning.”

                Keith self-consciously touched the hair growing on his upper lip. He had thought it had made him look cool and tough. Shit, did everyone think it was stupid looking? He shot an accusatory look at Shiro, because why the fuck hadn’t he told him?

                “Hey don’t glare at me! I thought it suited your whole Wild West look perfectly!” Shiro replied, getting up to walk over to the fridge to get some more orange juice for him and Allura.

                “I’m sorry Keith I really shouldn’t have laughed, you just took me by surprise is all. If you keep it I promise to never laugh ever again, pinky promise,” Allura said holding out her pinky. It was very very childish but also very endearing to Keith. He sighed and wrapped his pinky around hers.

                “I’m not keeping it anyways, it’ll remind me too much of that shit job,” Keith admitted to no one in particular. He got up then and headed towards the bathroom to follow through on his declaration. Half way down the hall he remembered that he would be needing a car to drive his money, er, Lance around in.

                “Can I borrow your car tomorrow, Shiro?” Keith yelled back over his shoulder hoping his voice carried all the way. He turned on the faucet and started the process of shaving off his lip partner.

                “No can do lil’ bro,” came Shiro’s response. Well Keith was fucked, Lance would probably reschedule right? “But you can take Red.” Keith eyes widened when he heard that.

                “Red’s out of the shop???!” Keith practically screeched while running down the hall to make sure he heard his brother correctly.

                “Yeah,” Shiro said nonchalantly, slowly perusing the back of the cereal box “Allura and I were actually going to give her back to you when we went down to see you as surprise.”

                Keith practically leapt at Shiro and crushed him in a giant bear hug. “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Where is she now though??”

                “You clearly weren’t paying attention when we pulled into the parking lot last night,” Shiro said smirking at him. Keith immediately ran towards the large bay window, and just as Shiro had promised there was Red, parked, waiting for him to hop in a go for a drive. From behind him, Shiro shouted “Here,catch.”

                A glint of silver soared towards his head, but he easily snatched it out of the air in one fluid motion. In his hands lay Red’s keys. In his hands lay his freedom. Now he could literally go where the wind carried him, he didn’t have to hang around the Phoenix area. He could try living up north, or maybe head down south and be near the border.  Just him and Red, that’s all he truly needed to get by in life. After he saved up some money for gas of course.

                Speaking of money Keith really needed to text Lance back. Pulling out his phone, Keith started typing up his apology:

                _[Hey, sorry for not texting you back last night, some stuff came up with my brother and I ended up really busy]_ He wasn’t lying right? Crying in Shiro’s arms until he passed out was the same as stuff coming up right?

                Lance didn’t reply right away so he figured he should probably send another text.

                _[And yes, I do know where you are.]_

                Still no response five minutes later so Keith thought sending one more text would be a good thing.

                _[You should probably send me your address so I can pick you up tomorrow morning. If you still want me to take you of course.]_

                Keith pocketed his phone and went back to the bathroom to finish shaving. Not even 15 minutes later his phone buzzed.

                [LOLZ i understand 2 much] attached was a picture of a pair of legs in faded powder blue jeans and a gaggle of children hanging on like leeches.

                [ i havnt been able 2 shake em all morning]

                Keith glared at the message trying to decide what the fuck Lance was trying to say. Why bother sending a picture of a family gathering? It’s not like they were friends.  Or even trying to be. They were literally strangers who met online. As he stared at the screen trying to figure out this cryptic puzzle, another message came in.

                [ my addrfess is 6626 west magnolia]

                [u btter not give it away 2 random strangers]

                [my mama would b pissd]

                At the last message, Keith couldn’t help but crack a small smirk. He didn’t know why but something about Lance’s stupidity made him really want to fuck with him. Just a little bit.

                _[What did you just do then?]_

₍₍ (ง Ŏ౪Ŏ)ว ⁾⁾₍₍ (ง Ŏ౪Ŏ)ว ⁾⁾₍₍ (ง Ŏ౪Ŏ)ว ⁾⁾₍₍ (ง Ŏ౪Ŏ)ว ⁾⁾₍₍ (ง Ŏ౪Ŏ)ว ⁾⁾₍₍ (ง Ŏ౪Ŏ)ว ⁾⁾₍₍ (ง Ŏ౪Ŏ)ว ⁾⁾

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I promise Lance is gonna show up in all his fabulous glory next chapter. Also writing Lance's texts is so hard?? I don't know how to mess up the grammar enough. Did I mention though that this is going to be a reeeeeealy long slow burn I hope you guys are prepared.


	3. Name Drop

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry for the update if it feels late to anyone, it was my birthday so things got pretty crazy around here. Uh anyways I hope you guys like how I wrote Lance cause he's finally in this chapter!

For once, everything was silent.  The darkness swallowed up any stray sources of light. It was far too early for the morning ray’s to shed any illumination onto the scene. The streets were vacant with the exception of Keith and Red who were acting more as witness to the eerie emptiness rather than active participants in its undoing. The traffic lights changed to unseen apparitions. Flickering neon gas station signs created a sense of foreboding in the pit of his stomach as if any second something horribly irrevocable could happen.  Keith completely adored this time of night and wished he could live in this perfect bubble of existent.

Turning off the main street, Keith drove down the residential road until he came across the small side street Magnolia. He scanned the house numbers until he pulled up in front of a white single story home. The front lawn was browning in places and littered with toys and bikes from what had to be either one horribly spoiled kid or a small army of gremlins. The only thing remotely nice about the yard was the beautiful rose bushes in full bloom that were planted right underneath a huge window that must belong to their front room. He could see the flicker of a tv screen filtering through the blinds. In the drive way was parked an ancient white minivan with a stripe of wood smack down the middle, a tan 4 door car, and a small new electric blue Volkswagen beetle.  This couldn’t be Lance’s house could it? It was such a bizarre mix of nice and, well to put it nicely, clearly well used. He had been imaging a mansion with a winding driveway, maybe one of those fountains with a naked woman pouring water from a jug, not an average house that anyone could own.

He sent a quick text to Lance that he was there. He hoped he hadn’t gotten the address wrong.

[r U the shitty red pickup truk??] He couldn’t help but gawk at Lances response, who in the actual fuck did he think he was?  Red was more reliable than any person he had ever met

_[Wow, how fucking dare you? I have never been more offended in my life!]_

_[My truck is better than anything you could ever own]_

Just then he saw emerging from the house a hooded figure that sauntered its way directly to his car. Shit Keith really hoped it wasn’t really Lance. The figure yanked on the door and the overhead cab light lit up his face and there stood a Latino boy, probably 19 or 20 at most.  Shit he was taller than Keith.

“Morning,  Keithy boY,” Lance said smirking as he climbed into the cab. Keith of course, went ahead and said the first thing on his mind.

“Holy shit you aren’t white.”

“I hate to break it to you, but neither are you,” the other boy replied without missing a beat. Yawning, he stretched and settled into the passenger seat. “Now drive, I need coffee since you practically demanded we go before even my dad wakes up to go to work.”

 With a scarlet washing his cheeks, Keith put Red into drive and headed towards the nearest gas station with a shitty coffee pot. Of course Lance wasn’t white, and of course Keith had to go and say that out loud and sound like some douche bag redneck.  Lance probably thought he was a stupid or something now. Fuck. Wait why the hell did he care what trash can here thought? All he had to do was show him around and collect his pay, not become bffs with the stranger sitting next to him. So basically fuck Lance, Keith didn’t care. Keith had more important things to do, like not miss the gas station that was only a foot in front of them.

Harshly yanking on the wheel, Keith managed to turn Red into the lot and up into one of the parking spaces. Lance was braced against the door, obviously scared at Keith’s atrocious driving but also giving him a confused look. Didn’t Lance want coffee? Why was he still sitting in his truck?

 “Alright your highness, coffee is yonder. Go retrieveth it, for I will not.” Keith said in the most sarcastic tone he could produce.

“Dude, I am not getting coffee from a fucking 7/11. Haven’t you heard of literally anywhere else?”

Keith scrunched his eyebrows and thought hard. He normally didn’t buy coffee; usually he just made it at home with a machine so old he wasn’t sure who had actually purchased it. How different could coffee from the gas station and home be? Coffee pretty much had one flavor, right?

“We could go to McDonalds…?”

“Oh my god, just go to a fucking Starbucks. Literally everyone has heard of them so don’t tell me you haven’t.” Of course Keith had heard of them, Shiro had mentioned them once or twice before.

“But aren’t they really expensive? Wouldn’t you rather go somewhere cheaper? I mean it’s just coffee.” The noise that clawed its way out of Lance’s throat at that last comment was some terrifying cross between a velociraptor and a demon being doused in holy water.

“JUST COFFEE????!? I CaN’T BELIEVE PEOPLE LIKE YoU EXIST!” Lance screeched at him. “Jesus didn’t die for you to say such blasphemy!”

After a good five minutes of Lance ranting, Keith was sure of one thing. He absolutely loathed Lance. He hated people who bitched, even more people who kicked up a fuss over trivial things. Why couldn’t people just shut the fuck up over the small problems?  He just wanted some quiet first thing in the morning.

“If you will shut up for five fucking seconds, I promise to drive you wherever the fuck you want! Whether that’s hell or shitty Starbucks, I honestly don’t care.”

“Hell is looking pretty good right now,” Lance grumbled under his breath. At that comment, Keith rolled his eyes and pulled up a map to the nearest Starbucks. Luckily, the nearest open Starbucks was only a mile away and wouldn’t take too much time to reach.

The Starbucks was relatively small, occupying the corner of the modest shopping complex. None of the other stores or boutiques were open at this wee hour of the morning, so the Starbucks shone into the night like a light house, beckoning them to enter. Keith was content to decline and remain in the car while Lance went in and wasted his money, but for some reason Lance insisted Keith join him.

“Just come with me, you are getting an education in coffee,” Lance grumbled when Keith gave him the stank eye. Keith rolled his eyes and followed.

Inside was a pleasantly warm feeling, the overall tone of the store creating an artificial coziness that made Keith want to just sit down and read. Keith could maybe see why people would want to come here, the store would actually be a really fun place to focus and study, well if Keith studied still that is.

“Is someone there?” a low voice called from the back.

“Yep! I need caffeine asap,mi amigo,” Lance called back as if the worker and him were already close friends.

A large Polynesian man pushed his way out of the back carrying a large tray of steaming chocolate muffins. He sat the tray on the counter and began putting the baked goods in the display.

“Sorry about the wait, I don’t normally get people in here right as I’m opening,” the man apologized as he set the last in the glass cage. “So what can I get for you lovely folks?”

“Well I’m going to need a venti mocha, but I’m going to need you dump as much syrup as you can in there as well as like 2 shots of espresso. For him, uh,” he turned to Keith at this point and asked “what do you even normally drink?”

“I just drink whatever my machine makes, I don’t know the name,” Keith replied sighing and looking at the clock on his phone. They should probably leave soonish if they wanted to avoid being out at directly noon.

Lance groaned, “Of course, you poor child never knowing the true beauty of coffee.” He turned back to the employee and said “For him make a java chip frap, but I guess only a tall so it won’t be a waste if he hates it.”

“Alright cool I’ll get started right away,” the worker replied. “So can I ask where you two are off to so early in the morning? No offense, but you don’t look like you guys are going to work.”

“Well my good sir, Keith here and I are going to go search for ghosts in one of those ghost towns you guys have.”

“Lance there aren’t ghosts in ghost towns,” Keith cut in. The look Lance was giving him was as if he had just kicked a puppy.

“Then why are they called ghost towns, answer me that, KEITH!” Lance retorted, grasping desperately for his dying dreams to be real.

“That’s just what they’re called smart ass.” Keith said smiling back, purposely trying to rile the other boy up.

“We will definitely find ghosts, screw you Keith!” He growled, sticking out his tongue in a very mature manor.

The employee’s roaring laughter broke the tension, and suddenly both Keith and Lance found themselves laughing at how ridiculous and petty their argument had been.

“Oh my god, I haven’t laughed that hard in a while! Thank you guys so much you are seriously a riot,” the man said whipping a tear from the corner of his eye. “My name is Hunk, and if you guys are ever up this early again I usually am on first shift so drop by.” Hunk then stuck out his hand for a hand shake.

Lance of course quickly grabbed Hunk’s hand and gave it a good hard shake, saying with a smile “Well Hunkalicious it is a pleasure to meet you, I’m Lance! Mr. Grumpy Pants over there is Keith and we would definitely love to get coffee with you sometime.”  

Lance and Hunk chatted for a little while more before Hunk presented them with their drinks. Lance scooped them up and gave enthusiastic farewells to Hunk. They left the Starbucks 30 minutes later than Keith had planned for, but they were finally on the road again.

“I liked Hunk he was so cool,” Lance chirped happily from the passenger seat, sipping on his drink and fiddling with the zipper of his jean’s pockets. “We totally have to go back next time we go somewhere.”

“How do you even know there’s going to be a next time? Who says I’ll want to go with you next time” He asked.

 Lance just laughed at his questions. “Dude, I don’t know if I mentioned this before, but Arizona is the most boring state ever. I would die if I sat in my parent’s house all day, so please don’t ditch me after one day.” Lance snatched one of Keith’s hands from the steering wheel and held it to his chest. “Please, I need you bro, don’t make me go back to watching my siblings all day. Sure I love them but a man can only take so many make overs before he realizes he wants more.”

“Ugh get off I’m driving,” Keith grunted trying in vain to yank his hand away from Lance’s tight grasp.

“Not until you promise,” Lance replied.

“Alright, fine I promise! Just let me go or we’re going to crash!” as soon as the words left his mouth, Lance’s grip went lax and Keith’s hand was free.

There was a brief silence, but it was comfortable to Keith. He didn’t need to fill every moment with pointless chatter, it allowed for him to think and not have to worry about what to add to the conversation.

The sky was lightening up by then, the sun’s amber rays peeking out from behind a dark mountain. The clouds were being tinged with vibrant pinks and scarlets, contrasting gorgeously against the dark moody purple of the morning sky. God Keith missed watching the sun rise. Recently he had been waking up too late, the last time he had really been able to see the sun ascend the sky was when he had been a kid.

Lance squinted his eyes at Keith then, and Keith couldn’t help but turn and glance to see what was up with the boy riding shot gun.

 “Wait a second, you haven’t even taken a sip of your coffee!!” Lance yelled out after a minute of staring.

“Uh, maybe it’s because I don’t want any??” Keith replied snapping his eyes back to the open road before him. Great Keith’s quiet was gone now,

“Dude, my bro, my broski, you need to understand coffee. You need to realize that there’s an entire world flavor you have yet to explore! Even if you decide in the end that your shitty home coffee is best, you need to know what other coffee tastes like in order to be able to decide that! So just take a sip!” at the last line Lance shoved the beverage into Keith’s face.

“Oh my god! Fine I will drink your coffee, give it!” He practically slapped Lance’s hand away as he seized the drink. Placing the straw to his lips, Keith sighed and took a sip.

The “coffee”, if you could really call it that, was overly sweet.  It had only the barest hint of actual coffee that played at his palette, the sugary syrups drowning out any of the bitterness he was used to expecting. The whipped cream on top was utterly superfluous and added practically nothing to the actual flavor of the drink.

“Soooooooo, what do you think? Isn’t it super yummy?” Lance asked “It’s probably my favorite drink when I don’t have to have my caffeine fix.” Lance’s eyes were glued to him, making his skin crawl. Goddamit did Lance have to keep looking at him like he was waiting for Keith to get down on his knees and praise the ground Lance walked on  for introducing this drink to him.

“Uh, I don’t know. It’s alright I guess? I wouldn’t call it coffee or anything but it’s not too bad, if you like sweet things.”

“Quiznak! Who doesn’t like frappechino’s?? You know what? It doesn’t matter, we’ll find your perfect coffee!” Lance’s grin practically split his face in two.

“Uh huh, sure thing Lance.”

“You know Keithy boy, you might be like my cousin. She doesn’t like sugar at all. She and her boyfriend get into fights all the time over how to take their coffee. Cause he’s like me you know, can’t drink anything that doesn’t have at least 2 cups of sugar in it. Or you could be like my older brother Dante. He likes a lot of milk and cream in his but weirdly no sugar?” Lance was rambling at this point.

 Keith tuned him out at that point. After the last hour he had spent in Lance’s company he was beginning to realize one thing. Lance was the complete opposite of him. While Keith tried to keep to himself and keep interactions with others to the barest necessity, Lance actively sought out others company and tried to let them in. Even if it was only over stupid coffee. Keith didn’t know if he liked that particular trait or not, but for now it was nice to just let Lance steer their weird relationship into friendlier waters.

“So what about you?” Lance interrupted his thoughts, “Now that you know all about my family let me here about yours! You mentioned a brother anyone else?”

Shit was Keith supposed to be listening to his coffee tangent? How in the fuck did lance go from coffee preferences to divulging his ancestry? Shit.

If this were a movie Keith would be able to open up to a complete stranger about his fucked up family life. Honestly Keith never understood that line of thinking. Why would a stranger care enough to listen? Why would he be willing to trust a stranger to care about him? Shiro had once tried to explain it to him something about being able to come clean without consequences. Keith had only become more confused with Shiro’s explanation.

So Keith avoided Lances question with a vague answer.

“Uh, yeah I do have a brother. But I guess I already told you that didn’t I Haha ha.” God his laugh sounded so mechanical and forced. Luckily Lance didn’t care and just launched into another long tangent, about what Keith had no idea.

The light had flooded the sky by now and turned it the standard sky blue. The desert shrubs were now fully visible and made the area all around them turn into a sea of browns, greens and the occasional rust orange. Keith hoped they could start the hike to the abandoned town before it got unbearably hot.

“Keeeeeith, were you even listening to me?” Lance whined into Keith’s ear. Fuck. Why did he keep slipping off into thought?

“What?”

“Wow you weren’t, I’m hurt! How are we supposed to become bffs before the summer ends?”

“Who says I wanted to be friends with you?” Shit Keith was being mean again. Think of the money, Keith. Think of the money. Be nice for the money, Keith.

Lance gasped at his words. “KEITH! I’m wounded!!!” He cried draping himself over Keith’s shoulders. “I swear we are going to be the tightest bro’s by the end of summer, or my name isn’t Lance Alonzo Mcclain!”

“Wait your initials are Lamb? That’s so adorable, is that how you pick up girls?” Keith was actually laughing now. Lances face was red now, having only just realized himself what condemning initials he had. He spluttered a couple of “whaaaaats?” and “pssh noooooo.”  Then, for once, Lance was quiet, sitting and stewing over what had been said.

The silence was uncomfortable this time, eating away at Keith. Lance seemed pretty easy going, but had Keith over stepped an unknown line? Mother fucker. He had to apologize. Or something.

“Hey if it makes you feel better my initials are KOK so personally speaking, I’d rather be a lamb over a cock any day.”

Bubbly laughter erupted like champagne from Lance and any sadness or embarrassment was swept away in an instance. Keith couldn’t help but giggle along with him, Lance’s laughter somehow irresistibly infectious, even if technically he was laughing at himself.

Wiping a tear from his eye, lance turned to him and asked him “So you never answered me, where exactly are we going?”

“We are going to an old mercury mine,” Keith responded.

“Cool Cool. So are we almost there?”

“Uh, as far as we can get to by R- er my truck. The rest we have to hike to, so yeah I hope you wore tennis shoes.”

Lance gave him a horrified look, as if Keith was asking him to eat his first born.

“You wanted an adventure, so let’s go find one, Lance.”

 

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**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you guys liked it! Just a heads up I'm going back to previous chapters and am going to put these guys₍₍ (ง Ŏ౪Ŏ)ว ⁾⁾ at the end of the chapters.


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